Donated furniture, paint job give South Carolina school new spirit

From The Charleston Post & Courier: The 550 students at J.V. Martin Junior High School in Dillon, S.C., arrived for classes Monday to find all new furniture, including a room full of new band chairs, and a spruced-up cafeteria provided by an Chicago-based company. Sagus International donated the furniture after hearing about the school's shoddy conditions when eighth-grader Ty'Sheoma Bethea wrote a letter to Congress pleading for help to fix her school. President Barack Obama invited her to his first address before Congress in February to help build support for the stimulus package designed to spur the economy and improve America's schools. Some of the furniture at the school was 50 or 60 years old. The oldest part of the school was built in 1896. The newest portion was built in 1983 after a fire destroyed the middle section of the school. Even the mobile classrooms are old, older than many of the student's parents, and re-sided with beige vinyl panels to cover up the age.